Congrats Are Due

Congrats Nate and Lyd on the birth of Bubba Eshelman today!

Robert Goulet In The Office or Our Camera Is Back

Our camera has been retrieved from my mother, she held it captive for the past week. Janna as you can see is absolutely thrilled to have it back.
Stuart on the other hand doesn't seem much interested in whether or not we have a camera. He's much more content sleeping. He's been sleeping through the night for well over a month now. The hard work put in back in May and June has given us excellent results.
Stuart still loves his bath time. I have no idea what Janna is doing but Stuart is greatly amused. He seems to be amused on a regular basis, though we can never quite figure out what he actually finds funny. What we do know is that he loves the dogs, especially Seamus. He follows Seamus around and doesn't mind at all when Seamus licks him in the face. I'll yell at Seamus to get away and if Seamus goes out of view Stuart starts fussing. He loves his dogs.
Speaking of dogs, young mistress Deirbhile has settled into life at the compound. She hasn't yet learned the invisible fence boundaries so she's stuck on a leash for the time being. In a couple months she'll be old enough to learn the fence, it will help that she'll fit into Seamus' collar.
Deirbhile is a smart little dog. The other night she was in the living room watching Seamus run around out back, when he went out of view near the house she ran towards where she thought he would be. Logically she was spot on, if he had kept running he would have ended up where she thought he would. Reality though is that he's scared to death of the electric fence and wouldn't dare run past it. Deirbhile doesn't know this yet, she'll soon learn.
Mr. Seamus holds court in the kitchen. He's taken to his new sister quite well. He loves romping around with her in the backyard. That said, he's still daddy's little boy and he wants me to carry him up the stairs at night and he wants that he always be in my presence.
Why not post another picture of Stuart? He got to spend some time with Grandma today as she made her way out from Lansing to visit with him for a couple hours. He's a blessed boy, his Grandma drives out from Lansing to visit with him and his Oma begs Janna to let him stop by for a visit. He seems to enjoy them both. But of course, nothing can compare to when his Daddy gets home. Daddy's arrival is always exciting. What a great joy to come home to a wife, baby and dogs, all of whom are happy to see me.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the dinner we had for the Lanning's a couple Sunday's ago. We enjoy having the Lanning's over, I think it's important for us to show them the same hospitality that they show us. In any event, we enjoyed fried chicken, salad with green goddess dressing, fresh made southern biscuits and for desert we had Janna's excellent key lime pie. The Lanning's seemed to enjoy themselves and I can attest that we enjoyed ourselves greatly. Our Pastor and his family are a great blessing to us all.

The Fresh Market

We have just gotten home from the most glorious experience of my life. We shopped at a grocery that makes D&W look like the lowest class of Aldi. We shopped at the Fresh Market on 28th street, it just opened last week. It is truly a glorious store, with the freshest vegetables, highest quality meat available in Grand Rapids, the greatest seafood counter I've seen in Michigan and a desert counter that rivals Astoria Pastry Shop in Detroit. Ok, so it's a little on the expensive side and yeah we won't be shopping there very much but I'm here to tell you for a special occasion or if we're putting together a cheese platter, we'll be shopping at the Fresh Market.

Bush Week For Stuart

It's been an interesting week for Stuart. First, his mother decided to dress him hip and take pictures of him. As you can see, he's a bit nervous of what is clearly his mothers impending insanity.
Ahhh! Stuart has figured out what mom is up to! He decided to behave himself for the following few shots:
This weekend Stuart got to meet his great-grandmother for the first time. As you can see she's checking him out and he looks like he's checking her out to. Thankfully they came to a mutual understanding that they were friends.
This is my grandmother's first great grandchild so she was particularly excited to see him. He had a great time with her and when he didn't she was more than happy to pass him off to someone who would deal with him. When you're pushing 90 and have great grandchildren you're entitled to pass him off, who can blame her?

Deirbhile Arrives!

We have a new family member! Miss Deirbhile Birn arrived via stork (Delta Airlines) this afternoon. And a splendid animal she is!
She's fascinated by the camera and can't quite figure out what's going on with it. Why do these people keep looking at me with that thing she wonders.
She's only 12 weeks old and can fit on the step with plenty of room to spare. So cute she is.
Miss Deirbhile has enjoyed exploring her new world, the cabinets are very interesting apparently.
Her new big brother is very excited to meet her. Seamus has been very good around Deirbhile, so Mommy and Daddy are very pleased. In fact, they both took naps in the same room while we watched Barefoot Contessa. Mommy is especially pleased.
And so we send Deirbhile off to sleep, her first night in her new Michigan home. She's a welcome addition to our home, Seamus has a sister and Stuart has a wonderful new playmate who's actually on eye level. Daddy is thrilled.

Back From Ludington

We just returned home from our week up in Ludington at my folks beach house. We had a nice, relaxing week away from Grand Rapids.
Our 10 days away began with a visit from my folks as well as our fabulous Beach Day party attended by many of our old and new friends. As you can see, Seamus and my folks dog Zoe had a fabulous time.
Stuart was very interested in his new surroundings. He especially enjoyed looking at the lake.
And here we have Janna with her ridiculous baby sling, it was the only was to take Stuart down to the beach. I hate that thing with a passion, interestingly so does he.
We had wonderful weather most of the week and towards the end of the week the sky was consistently blue and beautiful.
Here we have a look at the beach from the steps at my folks house. It's something like 266 steps to the bottom, needless to say we would rather drive a mile up the road to the public beach rather than drag Stuart and his gear all the way down there.
We saw plenty of boaters during our week. My father bought himself a boat and from all accounts nearly killed Mark and Linda on it last Saturday. I'll be staying as far away from it as possible.

In the end, the great part about this beach house is the sunsets and here we have quite a few:
And so we've returned to the compound, rested and relaxed. Thanks to everyone who came to our party, we had a great time and hope you did to.

North 131
West 96
North 31
To The BEACH HOUSE!

Stuart And The Stanley Cup

Stuart got to visit with the Stanley Cup today. Drew Miller won the Cup as a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Each player gets to have the Cup for one day and since he's a former Spartan and originally from East Lansing, he brought the Cup to Munn Arena. We couldn't resist the chance to see the Cup.
Miller was kind enough to allow us to take a couple pictures of Stuart in the Cup. And here is the wee bonny lad, not quite sure why Dad is placing him inside of a bowl.
Needless to say, when Stuart was placed inside the Cup the throng of hockey fans ohhed and awwed. And here we have a picture that will last a lifetime for the boy.

Independence Day

Stuart is celebrating his first Independence Day. How blessed is he to be born of Christian parents in a nation with a great and rich Christian heritage? On this day we should thank God for blessing us with freedom and thank Him for the great Christian founding of our nation. Stuart is blessed indeed.
Agnus is moving off to the hills if Virginia tomorrow and so she stopped by for a visit to say toodle loo. And here we have Agnus and Janna posing for a picture. What a lovely hand towel Janna is holding.
Janna has decided to abandon her husband and son in favor of a wild eyed trip to D&W with Agnus. One can only imagine what they're going to do over there, probably tear the store apart.
Thankfully Mr. Stuart has decided to spend the afternoon sleeping and I have no argument with that. Happy Independence Day everyone.

The Cuteness!

Stuart has the cutest smile, but can I get it on camera? Nooooooo. I came close a few times, but no big smile. Still, some darling pictures resulted, so we won't complain.